The dogs at MADACC are mainly strays, held for a short period of time. There are also dozens of dogs picked up by law enforcement and kept in similar kennels as evidence in ongoing court cases – sometimes for weeks or even months.

“Our job is to preserve these animals until such time as their cases can be resolved,” Flagler said.

Flagler says his staff does its best to spend time with those evidence animals, treating them better than their owners who may have used them for fighting. “This is not the best situation for them for us, but this is the situation,” Flagler said.

David Mangold says it doesn’t have to be. Mangold believes more can be done to help evidence dogs, and he runs an increasingly popular Facebook page called “Save Milwaukee’s Court Case Dogs.”

“MADACC’s not at fault. What’s at fault is the process. It’s totally about awareness, and I’m looking for people to help me,” Mangold said.

Mangold wants Milwaukee to be more like Chicago, where pictures of the dogs are taken and DNA evidence is gathered all within a few days. Then, there are several options for where the dogs are held.

Flagler says he wishes he had more money to offer long-term stay evidence dogs a better way, but unfortunately, he says…”The best we can do is make the best of it, and make these animals as comfortable as they can be. These animals mean the world to us,” Flagler said.

FOX6 News contacted the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office. They say they try to prosecute these cases involving animals as quickly as possible. The challenge is oftentimes, dog fighting cases will lead to other fighting cases, and the whole thing gets drawn out in order to catch all the bad guys.